diogenesian discourse

The keyboard is mightier than the machine gun... The political, philosophical and general outpourings of a troubled soul living in Australia and blogging his Vietnam veteran's head off.

Nothing in this blog can be believed. If you think that
anything in this blog is true or factual, you'll need to verify
it from another source. Do you understand? No? Then read it again,
and repeat this process, until you understand that you cannot sue
me for anything you read here. Also, having been sucked into taking
part in the mass-murder of more than 3 million Vietnamese people
on behalf of U.S. Big Business "interests", I'm as mad as a cut snake (and broke) so it might be a bit silly to try to sue me anyway...

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Be tough!

[PLAGIARISM ALERT !!!]

Suppose that, as neurology suggests, we all create internal landscapes (or social mindmaps) in our heads based upon the external social and emotional "landscapes" which we have been exposed to. Then, we will also perceive the world differently based on the conditioning experiences we have had.

That is why it is foolishness for somebody with a totally different mind-map to turn to another and enjoin them to "just be tougher", or something. That makes no sense! You would first have to learn the other person's mind-map to determine what they should be tougher concerning, and how they might begin to go about this. Men who have had to deal with several misandrists in their lives are, assuredly, already tough, if they have managed to survive the ordeal, as well as to learn from it. Constant experience with misandry will dig deep trenches in the psychic landscape, neurological patterns of memory, which caution a person not to be caught out by the prevalent social patterns of misandry which they ar bound to encounter, ever again. To speak to such a person, who has developed this knowledge of the world, and to utter, "just be tougher," makes almost no sense at all. You, as advisor, are dealing with theoretical postulates. The person whom you are seeking to advise is dealing, already, with known knowns.

We all have internal landscapes based upon our past experiences. These help to map the territory for us of our future experiences, determining what sorts of problems or rewards we're likely to encounter in terms of our particular social and geographical environment's typical offerings. To advise another concerning their demeanour within their own particular environments is to attempt to influence a Psyche with an inner map which seeks to match an 'outer' world of physical objects and particular social effects.

To admonish someone to be "tougher" is to raise an implicit comparison between postulates of your own particular internal landscape and theirs.

Not all would-be admonishers can live up to the standards of extreme toughness which they uphold with regard to another. Most cannot, I have found. For their very sense of personal "toughness" is actually based on an absence of the degree and type of difficulties actually faced by the person whom they are admonishing.

The one that is receiving the admonishing is, often, very tough! The person who is doing the admonishing, nonetheless, is often merely successful in life.

I didn't write that. The original article was about women and misogynists. All I did was change "Women" to "Men", and "misogynists" to "misandrists". Given my "issue" with misandry, I couldn't help but notice how equally well the piece worked applying gender reversal.

interesting concept "role reversal". Watched a play once upon a long time ago where the "roles' were specifically changed. Have to say that the blokes could find their 'femininity' easier than the females could find anything anywhere approaching 'masculinity'.

I was jus thinking before I got to the end and read your qualifier that inserting misogynists would work pretty well with this too, no sooner read than realised.

Re psychic mind maps but slightly off-topic, I used to think and possibly still do, though haven't thought about it for a while that the actual land around us influences our head space-- towit, Australians' have lots of empty head space, whereas Brits (for instance) tend to be a bit more intensified. I once heard a Pom in a cafe in Rhodes exclaiming incredulously that he had driven along a road in Turkey that went for ten miles--in a straight line!! Sheesh imagine that! A friend of mine whose English rels came to stay said he found them way OTT intense, with their unrelenting and worried querying ie, What time's dinner? when are we doing that? What's hapening about that, etc etc etc, so he sent them on a road trip to Canberra the very long way via Broken Hill. They returned two weeks later, gobsmacked and barely said boo for days.

That's a very interesting concept, Link. Given where I've been and what I've seen, no wonder this blog looks like it does! And it would explain my frequent urge to rip people's heads off and shove them where the sun don't shine. Do you think a road trip would help? But who can afford the petrol these days?

Funny you should mention lids and jars, JT. I went to open a new jar of Coles strawberry jam this morning and couldn't. Tried all the fancy gadgets including my big strapping 15yo son but to no avail. It' sitting on the kitchen bench mocking me.

Link, JahTeh, the train trips sound great. Maybe one day... Ron, If you still can't open that jar, I'll do it. It'll be a cinch. JahTeh, you are not a misandrist for calling The Blight ugly as hell. That's not a generalisation levelled at all men, that's just a comment aimed at a specific man. But I'm a bit confused, here, JahTeh, why did you marry a man who was as ugly as hell?

Help me out here, Davo - which masculine traits did these women have trouble finding within themselves?This question is going to be difficult to answer. Was really only referring to one specific instance. In this case, the males didn't actually 'pretend' to be female; as in 'ponce about', only just 'allowed' themselves to appear 'softer'. The females tended to 'act butch', but their 'aura' was still obviously female. As I said, difficult to explain.

Davo, it's f*cking hard work to perfect the art of machismo. We men have had a lifetime of rehearsal and performance to get it "right". You don't really expect a woman to be able to perfect such a role after only a few hours do you?

The counter shown below displays the number of Israeli military personnel refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories. I applaud their integrity and their strength of character. To me they are heroes of peace and humanity.